Radio XLVI, side A, track 6: “Janie’s Got A Gun” by Aerosmith

Oh, Aerosmith,I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with this song from the first time I heard it on the Hot New Music Hour. Obviously, it’s a great song if you just base it off the sound of it. But it’s really REALLY hard to “enjoy” a song that’s about a girl killing her father after years of horrible sexual abuse. And frankly, Aerosmith, I don’t know that you guys are the band to sing such a song. No offense or anything, guys, because I think you’re great, but it’s just really hard to believe that you guys are taking this song that seriously. I’m sure you are, but you’re just not the kind of band who can play ANY kind of song and have us think that you’re taking it seriously unless it’s about rocking and rolling or scoring with a chick. What this song sounds like is that you guys are sitting in someone’s living room passing around a joint talking about some story you heard about during your high school days and muttering “Man, that’s fucked up” as the room slowly fills with pot smoke. And then you decide to write a song about it, because you’re high as a kite and “Janie’s got a gun” sounds bad-ass. And I’m not denying it, “Janie’s got a gun” DOES sound bad-ass, and the whole song sounds bad-ass, but is this the kind of subject matter that we really WANT to sound bad-ass? I think we want it to sound angry or sad or helpless, but not sound like we’re watching a kick-ass revenge flick.